In the final phase of your PhD project new tasks arise: After dealing with the nitty-gritty details of your PhD project for quite some time and writing your first or second draft of the thesis, the time has come for getting back to the big picture: What is the „story“ you want to tell? Does it become clear throughout your text and the presentation for your defense? Do you highlight your innovations in the appropriate way?

Based on this story-line, the following questions are relevant for your rigorous revision of the text: Do I keep my focus at all times? Have I included all relevant aspects in the right section of my thesis or are there still gaps or fissures? Have I adapted the basic indegrients of empirical research (theoretical context, methodical approach, material, analysis and interpretation) to the conventions of my field of research and my research question? What do I with interesting stuff of minor importance for my main argument (what do I include in an annex and what do I even exclude)? Have I solved all my problems concerning referencing (esp. online material) or formatting?

As well, you have to understand that the defense is in part a ʽritualʼ or ʽsocial dramaʼ whose setting, plot, and structure you have to understand. What is exactly your role in it? How do you find the right balance between standing up for your first piece of work as a scholar and humbling yourself down as a candidate? What is important for your presentation and what do you have to keep in mind for the discussion? What do you still need in order to update your presentation skills?

We will meet three times – in the middle of months of April, May, and June. We will focus on reading together through the text summaries and/or short mock-presentations of all the participants as well as doing mock-defense sessions where you take up the role of the examiners of your fellow PhD students. In order to tailor the course directly to the needs of you as participants it is important that you prepare short texts or presentations on the progress of your PhD project before each session.

Keep in mind that the course is focusing on writing and presentation skills specifically needed for the final phase of your PhD. It can only be a training field among fellow PhD students. Other specific questions have to be addressed directly to your supervisors.

The class is held in English and targeted specifically at (international) PhD candidates writing in English. PhD candidates writing in German are invited as well, but need to prepare summaries or mock-presentations in English.

Dr. Lüder Tietz is trained both as a cultural anthropologist and as a clinical psychologist. He is specialized on gender and queer issues as well as on methodological questions. He teaches in various study programs (e.g. cultural analysis, museums and exhibitions, migration and cross-cultural relations) at the CVO University Oldenburg.
More information (in German): www.uni-oldenburg.de/materiellekultur/lehre/hauptamtlich-lehrende/dr-lueder-tietz/